The Randy Telford Youth Fund

The Randy Telford Youth Fund

Randy Telford was a lawyer, teacher, poet, activist and actor. For four years Randy was part of Nightwood Theatre’s Lawyer Show ensemble, taking on such roles as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jacques in As You Like It, Don John in Much Ado About Nothing and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night.

On stage he was a trickster, audacious and always colourful in his characterizations. Off stage he was a passionate fundraiser for Nightwood, winning top ticket seller four years in a row. He sold to his friends, associates and his students at Seneca College. He was constantly monitoring his fundraising progress with us, and was incredibly excited that the Lawyer Show was moving to the St. Lawrence Centre, a venue with more seats and a larger capacity to fundraise.

Several weeks before Randy’s untimely passing, he spoke of how much it would mean to him for his students to get a chance to see the work, and that he was considering offering a more affordable ticket to them by subsidizing the ticket price out of his own pocket. Randy was a well-loved teacher and mentor to those entering the legal profession. Wholly unique in his approach to learning, he inspired many.

With his passing on February 28, 2014 Randy’s family made the decision to honour Randy’s passionate commitment to the Lawyer Show by making Nightwood Theatre the charity of choice for his memorial donations. Nightwood was incredibly honoured by this generous act and were happy to announce The Randy Telford Youth Fund in the spring of 2014.

One of Nightwood’s core values is the education, training and mentorship of emerging talent. We believe The Randy Telford Youth Fund will honour both his passion as well as ours. It will help Nightwood Theatre’s Lawyer Show continue to grow in capacity as our largest annual fundraiser, and more importantly, it will allow the show to be more accessible to students entering the field.

The Randy Telford Youth Fund will go towards subsidizing tickets for young people who are financially limited, but interested in attending the Lawyer Show. It will fund a limited block of tickets for students and cover the actual ticket price of $65. The number of tickets made available will be directly related to the money raised within the fund. This annual fund honours Randy’s legacy.

“Randy helped me with my career, shaped my thinking, he was and will always be the best professor… a little too dramatic… but it was always great to attend his classes with him starting a class with a soliloquy… gone too soon, but ride on ride on, Randy Telford.” -Minh Hoang, contributor to the Randy Telford Youth Fund.